"Being" on the 'Net
(or, a Beginner's Guide to Creating Your Own Home Page)
By Stef Matthews
TGF Assistant Editor
There is a certain satisfaction to having your own femme place. Even if it's only on the Internet. The best that I can describe it is knowing that thousands of people have seen you, and that millions more could! If you're reading this, then you probably have most of the tools you need to create, maintain and enjoy "being" on the 'Net. Al Gore, I am sure, never expected that the "information super highway" would give us our first taste of freedom and togetherness. But, the Internet has given thousands of us the freedom to express ourselves daily in a (relatively) safe way.
In the last few years the proliferation of home pages for, and by, the transgendered has exploded. There are professional sites (like here at TG Forum), sites that catalog t-sites, rate them, feature the best of the best, feature the most beautiful, and can it be long before we have the worst of the rest? Contrary to what you might think, these aren't "slut-fests" where you have to pose half-naked, seductively or dress like a two-bit hooker. Some are just down right classy. Along with being interesting, informative and a real pleasure to visit, you get a real feeling of not being alone and even find some true friends along the way. You could literally spend months looking at t-sites and barely scratch the surface. I'll assume that you've already done this and that you have a feeling for what you would like to accomplish with your own pages. Now you need the tools.
The Tools
There are web site authoring tools out the wazoo. By "authoring tools" I mean software where you basically draw what you want your page to look like and the software takes care of the (sometimes) messy coding. But, you don't always get what you want and the process for you is often laborious and the results bloated. So, the best way to get exactly what you want is to plan, design and code your own pages. If that's what you want, then you need (at least) the following tools:
- A Place to Store Your Pages. Now this doesn't necessarily mean the Internet either. My first "home page" was on my computer only. But with the intention of publishing it when I was ready. There are places that will give you free web space. Probably your own ISP will (or at least at a nominal monthly fee.) My first page went up on GeoCities and I was happy with that until they started "pushing" advertising on me! As a subscriber to TG Forum you (will soon) have the ability to store your own web page - and the price is already included in your subscription. Then you need a way to transfer your home page files from your computer to the host. I'll cover that, in detail, later.
- A Text Editor. If you have a PC (with Win3.1/95), you already have one, albeit not the best, in Notepad. Really, all you need to be able to do is to save a file in straight text format, and Notepad does that. There are special editors made and freely (or cheaply) available that are specific to web page editing. But, at the very least, you can get by with Notepad. The first pages I ever coded were written with Notepad! I have since graduated to HomeSite which makes the job a lot easier. I'm not plugging HomeSite here, there are many equally capable, and probably more flexible, tools available freely; or darn cheap!
- A Graphics Program. Again, if you have a PC, you already have one in Paint. Also again, not the easiest, most versatile tool for creating web graphics, but you already have it. There are also many specialty software packages available to create (modify, retouch, resize, customize, tweak, alter, twist and shout) your graphics. Some are free, some are cheap, and some are down-right expensive. The high-end, the mother of all graphics packages, is PhotoShop. But, at well over $500, it is too expensive for my blood (though I heard it will cook breakfast for you too!) I fell into a much less expensive program called PaintShop Pro. (I'm not endorsing any specific products here, I'm simply telling you what I use.) It has a free 30-day trial version and the full retail product is about $75. But, in any case, you need to be able to create graphics for your web page, so you'll need something.
Basically, that is all you need to create your own home page. Sounds simple doesn't it? Oh, I forget to mention two other things: 1) A Plan, and 2) The Knowledge.
A: The Plan
The first, most important, step is to have a plan. Assuming you have (or have acquired) the tools, you can't just fire up the 'puter and slap together a home page (though I've seen too many that have that appearance!) You have to give it some thought. Figure out what you want to talk about or show, how you want to present it and then think about the person on the other end of the Internet who is viewing your page. I'll give you some pointer's along the way.
It seems as if it's obligatory to include an introduction, a brief biography (though I doubt many will read it), some photos (always the most popular section) and then some of your interests or special talents or knowledge (this is the area that always makes my favorite pages my favorite pages!)
The Introduction
One thing to avoid (like blue eye shadow) is putting everything about everything on your introduction page! I repeat - don't do it! It's kind of like bumping into someone on the street and saying, "Hi, how are you?" and getting their entire life's story in reply - for hours on end! So, unless you are one of those people, simply introduce yourself, try to engage the viewer's interest and invite them to see more.
Whether you choose to mention on your introduction page that you are transgendered or not is your choice. My Introduction page doesn't. I figure, a) they already know it because they found my home page, b) they will figure it out damn quickly, or c) they won't figure it out because it really doesn't matter. It is from this introduction page that you should allow people to delve further.
At the very least you should identify yourself and provide a picture (or some "defining" feature) that allows people to "put a face with a name." I can't tell you how many times that I have recognized a picture of someone but not known the name -- or just the opposite. I believe, with the way "our" world is growing, it is important to be able to relate a name with a face (hey, just like real-life!)
The Biography Page
Though I might have made light of it earlier, this is an important page. It is the one that I look to first (when available) to see how I might identify with this person. Are we similar in location, TG-status, interests? You can be as brief (Hi, I'm Stef a CD living in the US.) or as complex (Hi! I'm Stef. Here read my daily journal...) as you want. You don't want to bore people here, you want to be able to give them something to identify themselves with you so that they go further.
I doubt that many Bio pages get read completely or studied so don't expect any visitors to remember everything you implied or said in your Bio. Say the important stuff elsewhere too. But you may be surprised; I got several e-mails on my birthday from people that had looked closely at my Bio page.
Again, remember to include your name and a small photo so that your visitor's can now identify the facts from your Bio page with your face and name. Don't assume that anyone is taking notes!
The Photos
I have yet to see a transgendered person's page that didn't include this feature. It is somehow, woven into the fabric of our being, to look - if not compare ourselves, to others of our ilk. Regardless of how many photos that you decide to include, you need to be aware of one thing: graphics are big! You can tell everyone, everything - in detail, that happened to you in any given month in the size of one graphic (or at least a poorly planned picture.) They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. That's true as long as someone waits around to see the picture! There are some details about pictures (i.e. Web Graphics) that'll I will share with you in future chapters. But, let's just say, "Less is more!" (Now where have I heard that before?)
I have been to pages where the pictures all load, in full detail and size, and the page takes forever to load. I consider web pages to be like an elevator. By that, I mean that once people press "the" button they are willing to wait a while for the elevator. Too long and they get impatient. Too much longer and they take the stairs. The prevailing philosophy with photo pages is to "tease" them with smaller (i.e. quicker loading) thumbnails and let them decide to wait for the full version of the ones they really want to see. To use the elevator analogy again... You press two elevator buttons. One for the dining room and one for the pool area. Whichever gets there first, is where you'll go. If they both exceed your patience level you leave! So, thumbnails are the key to providing visitors to your home page a preview of what they might like to see. I will give you more detail on how to provide thumbnails in future chapters.
Your Special Interests Page(s)
This is what makes you special. Anyone can put up a home page full of pictures and a biography. That will bore the hell out of your visitors and unless you're "drop dead gorgeous" you won't get many return visitors or referrals. By special interests, I mean things that make you unique among the TG world. Do you write poetry, play music, like to write, paint or draw. Here you want to place interesting things about yourself that others might like to know and see.
I doubt anyone is really that interested in your antique collection of State Spoons (at least I'm not!) Here again, you want to engage and entertain people. Because you can quote, from memory, the spark plug gap of a '70 Mustang doesn't mean that you're going to entertain people in "our" world. There are tons of "special interest" groups on the Internet that spout meaningless facts -- to anyone but themselves. Our intent here is to peak a visitor's interest with things that a TG is "probably" interested in. Some popular favorites that I have seen in my surfing are especially the writings and poetry (again with thumbnails - or a synopsis), paintings, drawings, etchings...(even if you didn't do the artwork - with permission of course), links to fashion, cosmetic, shopping or related sites. The options are endless.
What To Expect
Some of you are probably worried about what to expect when you finally post your home page. I can tell you from my personal experience to be prepared for everything! My home page has been available on the Internet, for the world to see, for well over a year now and I've received everything from marriage proposals to out-right slams against me personally. You have to have a bit of a thick skin to deal with the extremes. Mostly, I've received nothing but compliments. On all aspects of me and my page and I know that I am nothing special in this TG world. Ignore the extremes and treasure the compliments. You'll never get a message that says, "Gee, your page was so-so." And if you do either ignore it or take it as a hint to punch your page up!
Before I Sign Off
In the spirit of cliff-hangers... I can't leave without, at least, giving you some idea of what to do. So, mark and copy the following snippet, run Notepad and paste this text and save it to a file with a HTM or HTML extension and then go to your browser and open the file.
<html>
<head>
<title>I Want My Own Home Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>I Want My Own Home Page!</h1>
</body>
</html>
Next Chapter: The Fundamentals of Web Pages!
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